Babysitting
by JaggerK
Summary: Bruce gets to babysit six year old Lian Harper on a night when Damian is home grounded from patrol. The problem? The pair hate each other and both Selina and Alfred are not available to run interference. Fluff.
Bruce could hear the shouting all the way in his study. Six year old Lian was spending weekend at the Manor. It was the first anniversary of Jade freeing herself from the Shadows and Lian's parents wanted to celebrate with a weekend away.

With her grandparents unavailable, Selina & Bruce had volunteered to take Lian for the weekend. They had quickly realized due to Selina and Alfred's conflicting schedules that Bruce would be left alone for one of the nights watching Lian and a grounded from patrol Damian.

It had reluctantly been decided that they would have to rescind their offer. Bruce had been adamant, though, that he could take care of his own son and a child for one night.

Bruce stood up from his desk chair and left his study, sighing. It might have been a mistake. Lian and Damian were like oil and water. There was something about that girl that pushed his youngest too far.

"Are too!" "Are not!" Resounded down the hallway towards Bruce. Surely his highly educate, intelligent son was not one of the two people in this verbal combat? Yet, there stood Damian Wayne, former Heir to the Demon, current Robin, son of Batman flinging ' Are too!' at Lian Harper.

Speaking of...was she wearing Superman pajamas? Did every child of his acquaintance own a blessed pair? Dick and Jason had owned several he was sure. There had been that horrible sleepover when Dick, Roy, and Wally had all worn theirs. He was buying her Batman pajamas first thing in the morning. In the meantime, Bruce stepped forward just in time to grab the flying red headed projectile as she leapt toward Damian.

Lian stopped struggling as soon as she realized who was holding her. She looked over her shoulder at Bruce and blew a curl out of her eye. "Hi Uncle Bruce."

"What is going on here?" He gritted out.

"She simply refuses to accept reality." Damian crossed his arms and glared at the bundle held securely to Bruce's chest.

"And what reality is that?" Bruce shushed Lian who started to growl.

"That Arrows are inferior heroes. They are back up at best." Damian's tone was disdainful.

"Damian!" He should have stopped at one. At the very least, Selina had been correct when she speculated upon his arrival that Damian would be more work than his three brothers put together. "The Arrows are our friends. They are our valued allies. They have provided us with extremely valuable assistance in the past and will continue to do so in the future. As we will for them. They are in no way inferior. Am I clear, Damian?" The boy merely looked away. He wished fervently that Alfred or Selina or Dick, anyone, even Jason, certainly not Tim, would suddenly appear to help him get through to the boy. "Am. I. Clear?"

Damian looked back at him and nodded. Bruce set Lian down and pointed her towards Dick's old bedroom where she generally chose to stay when it was unoccupied. "Why don't you get the book you brought and we'll read together for a while?"

Lian headed toward Dick's room but not before she stuck her tongue out at Damian over her shoulder. Bruce glanced back quickly to stop whatever attack that prompted from Damian and almost gaped when Damian stuck out his tongue in retaliation.

Bruce was sure that if he had been an ordinary man, an ordinary father, this was where he would have groaned and face palmed. At that moment it seemed like a perfectly rational, reasonable response to the situation in which he found himself. He was not ordinary though, had not been so since he was eight years old. He was the Batman. A six and ten year old were not going to bring him down.

A dark corner of his mind suggested that this might actually be the perfect way to bring down Talia and Ra's. Simply bundle up Damian and send him along to his mother with Lian in tow. There was no way the Shadows would last through the squabbling between the two. When it came down to it he had every confidence that Damian would never allow harm to come to Lian. The plan was beautiful in its simplicity. Neither family would ever let him do it.

Bruce took a deep breath and turned fully toward Damian. "Go to your room."

"That hardly seems fair. She participated in the argument just as much as I did but I'm being punished while she is being indulged." Damian sniffed. "In addition, she attempted to physically assault me."

"She has a name which you will learn to use by breakfast tomorrow." Bruce stated. "Lian was defending her family in an argument that you clearly started. She is also six. You should know better." He eyed Damian thoughtfully for a moment. "Are you attempting to suggest that you were worried for your well-being in an attack by a six year old from a family of 'inferior' fighters?"

"Of course not! I could easily take –" Damian stopped himself. "Very well. I will go to my room. I think you're all wrong though. It is she who is the Demon Spawn." He turned and walked down the hallway.

"Damian." Bruce waited until the boy stopped to look back over his shoulder. "We'll see you at breakfast. Alfred and Selina will be home." Damian nodded and continued on his way.

Selina had flown home right after her meetings. It wasn't that she didn't trust Bruce with Damian and Lian. It was more that she didn't trust Damian and Lian. Damian had been improving and Lian was generally an adorable imp loved by everyone but together? It was a disaster.

The house was quiet when she arrived though. She slipped into the study to head to the Cave where she expected to find Bruce and Damian. The sight on the couch tugged a soft smile to her lips.

Bruce was sound asleep with Lian snuggled on top of him. Her head fit right under his chin and one hand had a death grip on the collar of his dress shirt. One of Bruce's hands was splayed across the whole of her back keeping her from sliding off his lap. A copy of C.S. Lewis' 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe' was resting in the other as evidence of what they had been doing before sleep had claimed them.

Selina wondered if the World's Greatest Detective would ever figure out that their best friends, and now the new generation, were conspiring against him. Every child who ever came to spend the night at Wayne Manor did so with Superman pajamas packed in their overnight bag. Barry had literally run to everyone's house when he had seen the Superman slippers. Not to be left out, Alfred had ensured Dick and Jason had a set until it was impossible to find them in their sizes.

She slid her phone out to take a picture. They were so adorable snuggled there together. This picture would just be for her and Bruce. Batman had his dignity to maintain. Why, though, why did they just have boys? It wasn't that she didn't love her boys but a girl would have been nice. Ah well, Dick and Babs would eventually gift them with grandchildren and someday so would the others.

It was the noise of the phone taking the picture that woke Bruce. He snapped fully awake and prepared for battle. The situation was immediately assessed.

"Hey Tiger." Selina sauntered over to him and leaned in for a kiss. "I don't think you can do much battle with that particular weapon in your hands."

"Ah, no." Bruce gestured with the book. "We were reading."

"I noticed." Selina smiled at them both. "How'd it go?"

"There was no blood and no bodies hit the floor. I'm calling it a win. What about you?" Bruce looked up at her.

"Same. What's say we get this sweet bundle into bed and call it a night ourselves?"

"I think that sounds like an excellent plan." Bruce placed Lian's much loved book on the table and stood up. Selina watched him adjust the sleeping girl carefully for their trip upstairs. She hadn't realized until just that moment that she could actually fall further into love with Bruce Wayne.


End file.
